Honest Scrap Award

Well, I am the thrilled recipient of my first blog award!! Thanks to Callie at MidWestHorse Blog for passing this on to me. I am not sure if I am going to be able to do everything correctly, so bear with me. I suppose the first order of business is to list 10 things about myself that you don't know. Here goes.

1. I do not know what an Honest Scrap Award is -- as flattered as I am to have it bestowed on me, I don't know what it is or what "Honest Scrap" means or signifies (??), or why someone receives it.

2. I am a nerd at heart. Detail oriented to a fault, and I just love to decipher problems. For example, I work in accounting now, and I am happiest when there is something in the accounts that does not make sense -- I then get to go through all the reports, transactions, etc., and piece everything together to find out what happened and solve the problem. Kind of like being a detective.

3. I have had two people very close to me and important in my life commit suicide.

4. John and I were 30 years old when we met. Neither of us had been married before, and neither had children. I couldn't believe it -- most of the guys I met at that time had been married and/or had children, and I didn't do well in those situations. This was a real plus in my book.


5. I had spent too much of my life being angry, insecure, and just generally negative. Time spent talking to a good counselor, some medication, and a spiritual re-awakening (in the form of faith, looking to God) turned me around. My attitude changed, and as a result my life changed.


6. I love to cook when I have time, or when it is for a social gathering of friends -- I hate to cook when I "have to" like when it is 5:30 and I just got home from work.


7. John is better at the domestic stuff than I am. I would rather spend my time working on promoting our real estate business, or working on something for the horse club we belong to. I consider cleaning house a complete waste of my time. Someday I want to be able to hire that chore out.


8. I love to sing. I wish I had the nerve to go to a karoke night someplace and just belt out a song as loudly as I can. Of course, I would have to go alone to a different city where no one knows me -- then I would bolt for the door as soon as the song was over.....



9. I was in the Honor Society in junior high and high school.


10. I was TERRIFIED of horses when we first started taking riding lessons. Thank God I made that breakthrough and got over it. I cannot imagine my life without my horse.



I know I am supposed to pass this along to 10 other bloggers, but I don't think that is possible. I do not have 10 other blogs I am following, and most of the ones I am following have already done this recently. I am wondering if it is OK if I take a rain check? Then once I identify more blogs that I like enough to follow I can send this along......can the rules be bent like that???

Does This Horse Make My Butt Look Fat??

A while back, I posted a story about "Making Friends at the Dunes." The woman we met that day (Gigi) was the Dunes riding a couple of weeks ago on the same day as another friend of ours (Dee). The two of them met and talked for a while. Dee told us Gigi had on a t-shirt that said "Does This Horse Make My Butt Look Fat?" I must have one of those shirts!! I am going to search online and see if I can find one.

So we went riding on Sunday at the Indiana Dunes State Park. It was a great day -- not too hot, not too cold. We had a really nice ride. The neat thing about the trails at the Dunes is that they change all the time. The Dunes are a unique eco-system, and the plant life there is varied and beautiful. Sometimes the trails are underwater, sometimes they are not. But it is always interesting and scenic. The deer flies were sort of bad (only 3 more months till October!!!), but we had put plenty of bug repellant on the girls, so they were not bothered too much. John had the camera for part of the ride, so with these photos he took I guess I have to ask the question posed in the title of this post!!

Chicken Update -- Our poor little Prolapse Chicken has been in the barn in the dark since Friday. She needs to stop laying eggs so her condition can heal. She laid an egg on Saturday, which did not surprise me. But then she laid another on Sunday! I was bummed!! I have had that chicken in the dark, have been out there twice a day since Saturday giving her a sitz bath and putting Preparation H on her. She starts to look better, then she lays an egg and everything flares up again! But I am happy to report that this morning I went out to the barn to check on her and take care of her before going to work, and there was not an egg!! Also, her little rear end looked much better -- so I think we are on the right path. I think I will give her another day or two in the dark and with the treatment just to be sure.

I have such a glamorous life!!

Another Chicken Problem

I came home from work and went out to feed everybody as usual. John was not here -- he is out showing houses, and writing an offer (Thank God!!! Real estate has been so blasted slow!!). I gave the chickens some bread as a treat, and noticed one of them had a mess on her backside. I won't get into the gross details, but obviously something is wrong. I picked her up and turned her over and things did not look good -- red, swollen, that sort of thing. Her feathers were a mess, too. So I put her in the barn and came inside to search the internet. I think I may have found out what is wrong.

According to what I read, she may have what they call "prolapse." It happens when pullets lay large eggs (you would not believe the size of some of the eggs we've been getting). I guess their insides sort of come out. YUK!! Poor thing! Although she does not act sick or anything. She eats and walks around like normal, and this article I read online said that is the case with prolapse. They say to clean the area, apply Preparation H (no kidding!!) and keep her away from the other chickens (they will peck at the affected area) and in the dark as much as possible so she will stop laying.

So I took a bucket of warm water out there, put on my plastic gloves, and set her down in the water. She was real good about it. I turned her over and tried to wipe her off a bit, and she struggled some with that -- I think her little bum is painful. It sure looks painful. I do not have any Preparation H -- if John calls tonight I will ask him to pick some up on his way home. I guess I could call the neighbors and see if they have any, but that is not the sort of thing you do, I suppose! (lol) We are used to borrowing stuff back and forth with the neighbors, but I think we will draw the line here. This one guy on one of the websites I read said he cured his chicken of this by putting sugar on her first, then the Preparation H....pretty wierd, but I think I will give it a try. I have her in the barn, and I put a large box out there with hay in it -- I laid the box on its side so she can go in to sleep. I closed the window so the cats and/or raccoons won't get in there and bother her.

I hope she makes it......I do not want to have another chicken funeral!

I just went out to check on her before publishing this post -- she was laying on the feed box. Now why would she lay there when I made this perfectly good nesting box for her???

Animals at Night

I took some pics of our critters one evening last week...........

Here you can see my poor Divna's eye socket.......

Prayer Request

A friend of a blog friend has suffered a horse-related accident. She has sustained some pretty serious injuries.......we all know that it only takes an instant when a horse is spooked, and their instinct of self-preservation takes over. This is what happened, and our blog-world friend was seriously injured in the aftermath. Please remember her in your thoughts and prayers, and send out best wishes for her speedy and complete recovery. It could be any one of us "horse people" in this situation.....
May God be with her..........

Bareback on Friday, Stirrup-less on Sunday!

The horse club we belong to opens their grounds to members once in a while. People come by on a Friday night with their horses to ride and socialize. When we got there, I noticed I had lost a Chicago screw from my bridle. Of course we didn't have a spare with us, so I became like McGiver and used whatever I could find -- here is a picture of my dental floss solution for the missing screw!! It is pretty neat to ride there because you can use their facilities -- there is a large arena used for competition, and a smaller arena that contestants use for warm up and practice. Both arenas have barrels set up in them. John and I went last Friday night, and decided to try something different. We got on our Girls bareback, and rode in the smaller arena. Divna and I were in the lead -- it is better for John that way, because Divna will actually walk and she keeps Zora slowed down. With Zora in the lead every ride we take becomes the Kentucky Derby. I was actually pretty proud of Zora....she started out kind of jazzed up and nervous, but she did slow down. It always amazes me that John can stay on her. So we walked around the arena, and walked around the barrels a bunch of times, then saddled them up and took them in the large arena. I was giving the barrels a try -- just running around them in pattern. Divna did pretty good -- she will get real close to the barrel and keep a tight circle. She stumbled a couple of times, but otherwise I was impressed with her. It was fun....I have to admit it would be really something to try it in competition.......

Then on Sunday we went over to the Indiana Dunes to ride the trails there. Our friends with Rocky Mountain horses were there, but they got there early and were finishig up their ride as we were arriving. It was a really neat day at the Dunes -- the weather was perfect, and we ended up having an out-of-the-ordinary experience. Like I said, when we got there our friends were there, so we were talking with them. Their two horses were nipping at each others' necks. I took a photo -- I hope you can make it out. They were so cute. Then a man with his developmentally challenged son stopped by to pet the horses -- we have seen them there before. The son just loves to pet the horses, and they are so sweet to just stand there for him and look into his eyes. Then a couple with their pre-teen daughter showed up for a picnic, and we spent a lot of time talking with them and they were petting the horses. Then a couple with a 2 year old were driving home from the beach, saw us in the parking lot and stopped so the child could pet the horses. It was really cool. We were there for two hours before we ever got on the trail!! But it was great -- no complaints. We decided to try something different again. We loped a bit on the first part of the trail, then put Divna in the lead and rode the rest of the trail at a walk with our feet out of the stirrups. The Girls handled it great, even Zora who usually gets nervous if John takes his feet out of the stirrups. I think it is good for us to do stuff like that sometimes.....but boy is it painful the next day!! You have to use muscles you do not typically use, and we are both feeling it!!!

Bareback Ride After the 4th

We were so busy over the 4th of July weekend that we did not have a chance to go on a trail ride. The machine shop where I work had a picnic on Thursday afternoon, then Thursday evening we got invited to a really cool party. The hosts were our farily new acquaintances that we met through our entertainer friend. Anyway, long story short, they have this really neat house in a beach community in the Dunes. We had a great time. On Friday we had a cookout with John's mother and her friend, then on Saturday morning we left to go to Lafayette to visit John's brother and his wife. Our best friends, who live near Indianapolis, came up to visit, too. Even though it POURED rain and was kind of cold, we had so much fun.....we laughed a lot and just had a great time.

We got home on Sunday late afternoon, and were just worn out and had to get ready for work the next day. So we only had time for a short bareback ride in the pasture area. Then we took The Girls out into the yard to spoil them a bit with fresh grass. It was just nice spending time with them. Hopefully this weekend we can take a nice, long trail ride!!

Overall, it was a great holiday weekend!